The most popular CMS out there, WordPress has a ton of great features; probably the best of which is its extensibility.

Taking advantage of that Lizatom Shortcodes provides literally thousands of shortcodes and countless shortcode combinations, to give you a simple, easy to implement solution for improving your site’s design.

Consequently, we’re delighted to say that our sister site, MightyDeals.com, has managed to bring back the hugely popular LizaTom Shortcodes Plugin deal.

One of the best WordPress Shortcodes plugins available, the LizaTom Shortcodes Plugin is very lightweight, cross-browser compatible and easy to install. As well as great CSS3 staples, there are some awesome jQuery effects as well, including tab interfaces, accordion and infoboxes.

Hundreds of CSS3 buttons are included, you can define any icon, color or size that you like. Add tooltips or 3D shadows to images. Sleek looking pricing tables, pull-quotes, beautiful dropcaps and more are all featured. Tabbed content, accordions, custom lists and columns are all added in seconds with a simple code in your WordPress admin panel.

The deal price on MightyDeals.com is just $19, which is a fantastic discount of 85%, go get it before it’s gone!

Have you use LizaTom Shortcodes? Which did you find the most useful? Let us know in the comments.

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The most popular CMS out there, WordPress has a ton of great features; probably the best of which is its extensibility.

Taking advantage of that Lizatom Shortcodes provides literally thousands of shortcodes and countless shortcode combinations, to give you a simple, easy to implement solution for improving your site’s design.

Consequently, we’re delighted to say that our sister site, MightyDeals.com, has managed to bring back the hugely popular LizaTom Shortcodes Plugin deal.

One of the best WordPress Shortcodes plugins available, the LizaTom Shortcodes Plugin is very lightweight, cross-browser compatible and easy to install. As well as great CSS3 staples, there are some awesome jQuery effects as well, including tab interfaces, accordion and infoboxes.

Hundreds of CSS3 buttons are included, you can define any icon, color or size that you like. Add tooltips or 3D shadows to images. Sleek looking pricing tables, pull-quotes, beautiful dropcaps and more are all featured. Tabbed content, accordions, custom lists and columns are all added in seconds with a simple code in your WordPress admin panel.

The deal price on MightyDeals.com is just $19, which is a fantastic discount of 85%, go get it before it’s gone!

Have you use LizaTom Shortcodes? Which did you find the most useful? Let us know in the comments.

STREAMIFIED: Full Social Media Management – only $11!

“It’s a great day in Delaware,” stated Governor Jack Markell (D-DE).  

On Tuesday, Delaware became the 11th state (plus Washington D.C.) to permit same-sex marriage, following Rhode Island‘s legalization of same-sex marriage by five days.  Same -sex couples will be eligible for marriage licenses on July 1st of this year.  

The bill passed in the Senate, with a vote of 12-9.  

Same-sex marriage also won state referendums in Maine, Maryland, and Washington in November 2012. 

According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, a majority of Americans, 53%, support same-sex marriage.

Could this mark a new trend in the United States?  Will other states follow suit?

Many argue that the aforementioned states are indicative of a new progressive era in our country, even with some 42% of Americans opposing same-sex marriage (NBC/WSJ poll).

What direction are we headed in?

It’s been said that the only thing constant is change; and in the world of advertising, this saying is especially true. For years, successful “Mad Men” merged art with copy, effectively defining the creative team and reaping great rewards. Fast forward to today, where digital advertising is increasingly omnipresent, and one thing becomes clear: the dynamic duo of art and copy must make room for a third member, code.

With this in mind, Google has recently introduced Art, Copy & Code — a series of experiments designed to redefine advertising in a connected world. These projects illustrate how creativity and technology can merge to give consumers an interactive experience. Plans include partnering with companies like Burberry and Adidas, along with joining forces with filmmakers and other creatives to help brands inventively use technology to connect with consumers.

The first test is a partnership with Volkswagen in the production of the VW Smileage app. Using a metric called “smileage”, the app draws upon signals like weather, location, and traffic to measure a trip’s fun; plus, the experience can be shared with friends through continual plotting on a live interactive map. This social driving experience — which can be used in any vehicle, not just Volkswagens — is revealed in the video below. 

Clearly, the networked world we live in demands that advertisers engage consumers like never before. Print pitches and passive on-looking simply won’t do in our connected, digital society, so the marriage of art, copy, and code is timely. Luckily, the minds at Google recognize that no amount of technology can replace the emotional storytelling aspect of successful advertising endeavors of the past. 

What hasn’t changed is the need for human insights, breakthrough ideas and emotional stories. Code facilitates new kinds of experiences, but it doesn’t replace the storytelling skills the advertising industry has honed over the past fifty years. Our connected world is giving brands more dimensions and touch points, but they still need something compelling to offer in order to create a real connection.

 The reach of Google’s specific experiments is, of course, yet to be seen. But in the meantime, we can be reminded that the old way of doing things still holds a lot of merit — as long as it meets the new way of doing things in the middle.

How successful do you think Google will be with its series of experiments? Do you think the role of digital media will supersede all others as time goes on? Let us know in the comments.

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Today, May 9th, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD a whole day devoted to learning about web and mobile accessibility. I encourage you to take some of your time today to learn a bit more about this important topic.

Accessibility is a subset of UX that aims to makes websites usable by the most people possible, including those with disabilities. For lots of us who work on the web, accessibility is generalized as “blind people”, but it’s more than just screen readers and covers a wide range of users with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities. Today is about learning how to craft better, more usable websites for people with various circumstances and situations in life.

Ways you can celebrate #GAAD

Here’s a few challenges that you and your coworkers can try today:

• Unplug your mouse for hour
• Use the accessibility features on your smartphone
• Turn off your screen and use a screen reader for an hour

Check your own site, visit some of your favorite sites, try to use your favorite social network. You may find that it’s not that easy and you feel restricted. Creating accessible websites can provide people with digital independence.

Learning Accessibility

I’ve been making websites for over a decade but am often confused by web accessibility. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, a tiny error or omission (usually with JavaScript) leaves a site completely inaccessible. Despite this, I firmly believe that knowing the basics about accessibility is part of the job description for every front-end web developer.

There are lots of great resources for learning accessibility, but finding the latest, up-to-date information is a bit difficult. Often times good information is buried in long academic posts or comment threads scattered across hundreds of websites. In an effort to make learning accessibility digestible and up-to-date, myself and a growing group of contributors have created The Accessibility Project.

The A11YProject is a community driven open source project that seeks to make learning web accessibility easier. Because it’s open source, anyone can contribute, update articles, and fix errors. It’s an open source knowledge base dedicated to improving how we build websites. I encourage you to take some time today to browse the site and pick up a few new tricks. The “Quick Tips” and “Quick Tests” are some of my favorites. Each article is under 2 minutes in length.

If we were all to learn some of the basics of building accessible websites and we built empathy into our processes, we could impact great change. If each of us did our part, rather than ignoring it, we could incrementally help make the world a better place for millions of individuals.

For more information on #GAAD:

Again, I encourage you to take today to learn more about accessibility. Tweet about #GAAD and share this article with to your friends and coworkers.

For more information about Global Accessibility Awareness Day:

• Visit http://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/
• Follow @gbla11yday or #GAAD on Twitter

If you’re still interested:
- Join the #a11y conversation on Twitter
- Have questions? Ask @a11yproject on Twitter and we’ll try to get you answers.

The post Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day! appeared first on Treehouse Blog.